Mary's Lamb and Edvard Grieg
Anapest pattern in Context
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Mark your calendars!!! I am presenting a workshop for the Music ConstructED platform entitled “Movement IS Music - Dalcroze Strategies for Public School Classrooms” on November 28th (8PM Eastern, 7 PM Central). This will be a virtual event, and I hope everyone in this SubStack community will join me! I’ll be going over some of the most popular activities posted here, expanding on them, answering questions, and providing some deeper insights. I will be presenting the workshop live, but I believe there is an asynchronous option, if you can’t make the live version.
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Standup comedians have a fascinating process for developing their material. Each comic might approach it somewhat differently, but as far as I can tell, most of them follow a similar trajectory. They get up on stage with an idea, and they work it out over many months and many audiences. They tinker with the wording, swapping out various punchlines or set ups. Subtle changes in timing or inflection might make all the difference in the bit working or not. The more I learn about these processes the more I see parallels in my own work. I am so fortunate to be in front of a classroom for many hours each day, and even on the weekends. I get to hone my lessons and really sharpen the delivery.
There is a lesson I have been working on for about three years now, and it is one of my favorites to teach. It started as an exploration of anapestic rhythms (short-short-long) and continues to grow and change for each population I teach. I typically teach this lesson to 2nd graders in my public school classroom (7 years old) and with younger students at Carnegie Mellon, but I can see it being effective with a wide variety of ages.
The lesson begins with a refresher course on the anapestic rhythm, and the body technique I prefer for this gesture. We would review the notation as well, since later this will help create a powerful discovery. Once we’ve reviewed this prior knowledge, we will explore the melody from “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
This lesson video is longer than most of mine, but I think you’ll find it worthwhile to watch the whole thing to see how it evolves.
The anapestic rhythm of Mary Had a Little Lamb can be written on the board to allow students to really absorb the pattern and remember it well.
After we’ve explored that rhythm, I’ll teach them the following lyrics:
This song is by Edvard Grieg Edvard Grieg, Edvard Grieg This song is by Edvard Grieg in 1875 It is in a minor key minor key, minor key It is in a minor key then modulates to V
I do anglicize the pronunciation of “Edvard” as “Edward”… it’s simply easier for my students to say it and causes less trouble. I also understand the the piece doesn’t actually “modulate” but it’s a poetic license I’ll also stand behind.